FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT STARBUCKS - PAGE 3

NEW DELHI: World's leading coffee chain Starbucks has finally seen the light of the day in India through a distribution tie-up with the country's leading multiplex operator PVR Ltd for its select products. PVR has started retailing Starbucks products at its select multiplexes in Mumbai and Delhi and plans to extend the arrangement to as many as 25 movie theatres across major metros. "The retailing of Starbucks products has already started on an experimental basis at three multiplexes in Mumbai and Delhi.

WASHINGTON: US coffee giant Starbucks will begin offering free wireless Internet service at its 6,700 US stores next month and free digital content through a partnership with Yahoo! Starbucks said the free Wi-Fi service would be available from July 1 through US telecom giant AT&T. Starbucks currently offers two hours of free Wi-Fi to customers who have a Starbucks card. The coffee chain said it also plans to offer free digital content to customers, including free access to websites such as that of The Wall Street Journal, which currently charges online readers for full access to WSJ.com.

NEW DELHI: Starbucks, the world's largest retailer of coffee, has revived its plans for India and has begun talks with Shyam and Hari Bhartia-controlled Jubilant Group for a possible alliance, two persons familiar with the development said. Jubilant Foodworks, part of Delhi-based Jubilant Group, is the India franchisee for Domino's, the pizza chain. The group's flagship is Jubilant Organosys , a leading contract manufacturer of pharmaceutical products. When contacted, a spokesperson for Jubilant Foodworks declined comment.

BANGALORE: The world's biggest fine coffee-cafe chain, Starbucks, will be sourcing coffee beans from India for the first time. A contract was signed here on Wednesday between a senior Starbucks buyer and Ramesh Rajah, MD, Ramesh Exports. Mr Rajah is also the president of the Coffee Exporters' Association of India. Mr Rajah told ET that the contract stipulated that once Starbucks was assured of consistent quality, it would pay a premium well over and above the market price, with the bulk of the premium going to the growers.

MUMBAI: Starbucks chairman and CEO Howard Schultz is set to clinch a joint venture with Tata Group for opening coffee shops in India, almost nine months after he struck a sourcing deal with Tata Coffee, a unit of India's largest private conglomerate and Asia's largest coffee grower, said two sources directly aware of the matter. Seattle-based Starbucks Coffee Company had held talks with other potential partners , like Jubilant Foodworks, before settling down with the Tatas for its ubiquitous cafe business in India, where there is a growing affinity for cappuccinos and lattes.

BEIJING: A state-run cafe has opened in Beijing's Forbidden City on the premises where Starbucks closed down earlier this year amid charges the US chain sullied the site, media said. The "Forbidden City Cafe," managed by the authorities that oversee the historic imperial quarters, serves both coffee and traditional Chinese tea, the Xinhua news agency reported late Sunday. "We want to provide tourists with a package of products relating to the imperial palace and Chinese culture," Li Wenru, deputy curator of the Forbidden City, was quoted as saying.

SHANGHAI: Starbucks has come a long way in making itself a household name in this nation of tea drinkers creating a "coffee house" niche where none existed before. With the launch today of its "frappucino" bottled drinks, the company, with partner PepiCo Inc, is reaching beyond its iconic stores in marketing the brand in Chinese stores, shops even Shanghai's subways. To grab the attention of trendy young Shanhainese, Starbucks and PepsiCo are marketing the bottled coffee and mocha-flavoured drinks with an interactive serial movie, "Sunny Day," played on flat TV screens in Shanghai's subways.

HOUSTON: US coffee store Starbucks customers will have access to faster Wi-Fi speed from August, thanks to the company's new partnership with Google. The Seattle-based company has made Wi-Fi free at its stores since July 2010, eliminating a previous fee of USD 3.99 for two hours of access. Starbucks said that Google , in conjunction with Level 3 Communications, will now be providing Wi-Fi service to its stores located in the US. The new service will have an internet speed 10 times faster than the current service powered by AT&T.

NEW DELHI: US-based coffee retail giant Starbucks has filed a revised application with the Foreign Investment Promotion Board for a foray into India and may open close to 100 outlets by early next year. The new application comes nearly three months after FIPB rejected Starbucks' previous application to open single-brand retail stores in India, apparently on lack of clarity on the foreign shareholding structure of the proposed Indian venture. "After working closely with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry to better understand the existing foreign investment regulations, Starbucks submitted a revised application on April 13 to operate single-brand retail stores in India with a restructured entity," a company spokesperson told media from Seattle, US. Although the spokesperson did not disclose the name of its partners in India until the FIPB approval, sources said its previous application provided for Starbucks opting for up to 51 per cent stake.

NEW DELHI: Close on the heels of Mukesh Ambani's ambitious retail foray, younger brother Anil is now learnt to be in talks with US coffee retail chain major Starbucks to forge an alliance for the latter's India foray. Industry sources confirmed that the two companies are already in advanced stages of discussion on the prospective retail formats and other modalities. This assumes importance as the $6.4bn Starbucks, the leading US coffee retailer, recently announced plans to open its first outlet in India in '07. Earlier this month, Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz said, at the company's Q3 result conference, "We are equally excited about two other major markets we intend to enter during '07 ?